Fredericksburg, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fredericksburg, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Fredericksburg lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Fredericksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fredericksburg — the short answer
Fredericksburg, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Gillespie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Gillespie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Gillespie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Gillespie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Fredericksburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fredericksburg's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fredericksburg
Each reading below is measured for Fredericksburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFredericksburg runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Gillespie County, the closest normal to Fredericksburg) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFredericksburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Fredericksburg is in
Fredericksburg sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fredericksburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gillespie County.
What Grows in Fredericksburg
Every plant below cleared Fredericksburg's own zone 8b and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fredericksburg?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Fredericksburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL C SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- EDWARD F STEIN JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CIRCLE K 691Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- QUALITY PEANUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CIRCLE K 3847Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KWIK CHEK 61Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- EXPRESS LUBE FREDERICKSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TOMMYS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CORNER STORE 0980Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALVIN MAENIUS JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- STROEHER & SON SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WUNDERLICH READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fredericksburg's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Fredericksburg.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fredericksburg, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 97 sites within ~10 miles of Fredericksburg. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fredericksburg
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fredericksburg average
Your land is one point inside Fredericksburg
Everything above resolves to Fredericksburg as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gillespie County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Fredericksburg Average
Fredericksburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fredericksburg
- ●One soil character for all of Fredericksburg
- ●Frost dates read at Fredericksburg's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fredericksburg's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fredericksburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fredericksburg, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fredericksburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fredericksburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fredericksburg average
How we know this about Fredericksburg
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gillespie County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Fredericksburg
When does frost risk typically end in Fredericksburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fredericksburg typically lands around Mar 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 25.
When is the first frost in Fredericksburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fredericksburg typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fredericksburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fredericksburg sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 8, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fredericksburg?
The federal record around Fredericksburg shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fredericksburg?
From about Oct 23 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fredericksburg's scale — its 8b band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fredericksburg's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Fredericksburg’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fredericksburg's own scale — the 6,116 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fredericksburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fredericksburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fredericksburg's boundary and the 6,116 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fredericksburg's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fredericksburg has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gillespie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fredericksburg's 6,116 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gillespie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gillespie County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Gillespie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fredericksburg's 6,116 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fredericksburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,116 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Fredericksburg-wide figureread your own land →
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